Scream. Shout. Express who you are.

I was thinking about exercises we used to do way back in our high school writer’s guild (wow, I make myself sound sooo old), and remembered this activity that I especially liked. I dont really remember what it’s called, but I will try my very best to describe how it goes…

sowe would form a circle and then start with writing the first sentence or two of our story on our own sheet of paper. You end with a half finished sentence–which will then be continued by the person next to you in the circle. Then we fold the paper such that it covers the first sentences, and shows only the last few words of your last (unfinished) sentence. With only the few uncovered words as a hint, the person next to you tries as best as s/he could to finish the sentence and continue the story. She can write another few sentences, fold the paper again, and the cycle goes on…

It was a humid summer afternoon. Kimmy, who has been ridding her bike through the neighborhood wanted to get

a drink but

_____________________________________________________________________

so person 1 folds the paper horizontally such that only the last line (“a drink but”) shows. So those will be the only words that the next person (Person 2) have to work on.

Person 2: a drink but then the quick sly burglar made a quick leap for survival. There were police cars

everywhere and he

Person 3: everywhere and he just could not find her girlfriend Mary anywhere. He knew he had to wait….

you get the idea, right? haha. It’s really a lot easier to demonstrate, but hey I tried. Don’t I at least deserve a pat on the head?

So anyways, what did all this excitement and reminiscing bring about? An IDEA! It was a “Eureka Moment” Except that I need other people who will want to participate to make this happen :)

It will not be axectly like the exercise that I tried to explain above but basically the same concept. It will be a Collaboration Zine of sorts. And there are 2 ways that I think we can do this… either (a.) we each start a story; or (b.) we randomly select one person to start the story and then we all wait for our turn to write. On that I will need input on whether wich one you guys will want to do…

the upside to the first option: we dont have to wait, will will all be writing something all the time, since we each started a story. So let’s say I’ve already started my story and I want someone else to continue it now, so I pass my whatever I have written to the person next to me (theoretically, not physically since we will be doing this most likely through onlineXD), and that person passes her story to whoever is next to her and so on… (get it? I’m sorry, I am really horrible at explaining things but you can always ask me to clarify). ALSO, we end up with a lot of different stories in the end, which we can all share.

The downside: tt the same time, the fact that we are always working on somethign can also be a downside. I mean, we all know that we are working with other projects of our own or are doing other things… so it’s a matter of being able to commit yourself into finishing your part at a given and set day… because if someone isn’t able to, it can ruin the cycle.

With the second option, on the other hand, we will all be only working on ONE story. We determine the sequence of the cycle (i.e. C writes first, followed by X, then R is 3rd, etc.).

The downside: you wait for your turn, and for eager and sometimes impatient people like me, the wait can be really gruelling. And the end result is ONE story that we will all share.

The upside: it is not as time demanding as the first option, thus allowing us to work on other things. However, just like the first option, being able to finish each of our parts (may it be a X number of paragraphs or a whole chapter–depending on what has been agreed upon–must be finished at the set time)

other “RULES” ideas:

– we cannot consult each other on what will or may happen next. your part of the story is YOUR part, you have to maken your own twists to the story… although you can always look back to the previous chapters/paragraphs written by others to draw twists/build a conclict from.

– we will set X amount of days to work on our part, then after we will have too pass it to the next person.

-we will set X number or paragraphs (or a chapter each participant??) for each turn.

UPDATE: June 28
The 1st cycle of the collaboration officially starts today. :) Details were emailed to each participant… so if you didn’t receive anything and you are in the official particpant list, either check your junk mail or let me know by emailing me at: i_reply@live.com

Like this:

i really love this idea! my suggestion would be to combine both options and have a set number of people to start stories and then pass those along. that way, the wait is a little less long and you get to have multiple stories. ill keep in touch!

that is a great idea! but to finalize how this will go, we first will have to know how many people will want to participate. I mean if there will only be a few (i.e. 5, then maybe we can just do one) etc. etc.

so it will be great if we find other people who will want to take part. :) i’m pretty new at networking with other zinesters, so if you know others who might be interested, that would be great too :)

Who the heck?

Hi! Well, because I’m a wuss who still does not have the guts to admit who she is, I will choose not to say my name. It’s is not because I am not proud of who I am or what I do, but because I still am not comfortable in my own skin. I am yet to find a common ground between who I really am and who I want to be, so until then, I’ll have to choose to hide who I am.

I am deluded and as with a lot of people, it sometimes gets difficult to differentiate reality from imagination.